Congress hits out at BJP over NIT unrest, says party is a 'mute spectator' as sons of India are being lathicharged

New Delhi: On Wednesday, Congress accused the NDA government of having "different yardsticks" on the issue of nationalism and questioned the alleged "silence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over police action on students at NIT Srinagar.

"Self-proclaimed nationalist BJP is a mute spectator while the sons of India are being lathicharged. Why Modi ji is silent now," AICC communication department chief Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.

Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Manish Tewari said that while on the one hand Modi government arrests students of JNU in Delhi on the basis of "fake" videos, "on the other hand in Jammu and Kashmir they rough up students who raise pro-India slogans."

Representational image. Reuters

"BJP and Modiji have one standard in Delhi and different in Jammu and Kashmir where they are in government with PDP," he said.

There was unrest again on Tuesday at NIT Srinagar, the scene of last week's clash, with outstation students expressing a sense of insecurity and attempting to leave the campus, leading to a confrontation with police which resorted to lathicharge in which some were injured.

Last Friday, the campus had witnessed clashes between local and non-local students over India's defeat in the semi-final match in the World T20 tournament.

Replying to questions, he said that all those people, who are trying to "polarise" the society either in the name of saffron and or green will be given a befitting reply.

To a question on whether Congress will greet BJP on Wednesday on its foundation day, Tewari said sarcastically, "BJP has morphed, mutated and evolved into many shapes. God knows how many death anniversary and birth anniversary that party will have. We will not like to go into that."